Ordinarily, an article or column does not begin by quoting a sentence. One usually starts with an introduction, and only after the headline might an important quotation, reference or political remark appear.
Yet something unusual happened the other day. When President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan used the expression in this article's title from the podium, political observers around the world – Muslim and non-Muslim alike, from East to West, from North to South, including Israelis, Armenians and Greeks – picked up that sentence and carried it into their own columns or posted it on X. A phrase spoken in Türkiye unexpectedly resonated across the globe.
Let us deepen the discussion by asking a simple question: Whose war is this? It is perhaps one of the most frequently asked and most widely debated questions in the world today.
Did the world truly need such a war? How dangerous was Iran for the region, for the U.S., or for Israel?
After last year’s 12-Day War, Iran had largely turned inward, focusing on its domestic issues. Yet suddenly Israel – acting as if Iran would become a threat 10, 20, or even 50 years from now – launched another direct attack on Iran, just as it had previously attacked Lebanon, Gaza and Syria.
There is much to say and debate about this war. But we should not hesitate to state the following clearly: The war did not begin because negotiations between Iran and the U.S. were going badly. On the contrary, Israel launched the war precisely because the negotiations were going well. The possibility of peace was emerging. And the war continues not as America’s war, but essentially as Israel’s war.
One recent survey conducted in Europe, Canada and the U.S. produced striking results. While the percentages vary from country to country, on average, about 55% of respondents describe this conflict as Israel’s war. Roughly 20% see it as America’s war. For a leader – or for someone who believes he is waging war on behalf of his own nation – such a perception is disastrous.
The U.S. cannot convince its own people of the necessity of this war. It cannot persuade NATO. Nor can it persuade its long-standing European allies – countries that have stood in alliance with Washington for nearly a century.
So what was the objective of this war?
If one listens to U.S. President Donald Trump, the explanation often sounds like domestic political rhetoric – statements that lack substance and carry little weight in global politics.
During the invasion of Iraq, it was easier to persuade the world. At that time, there were only a handful of major international broadcasters such as CNN and Fox News. Information spread from those channels shaped global opinion. If the U.S. administration believed something, the public tended to believe it as well – and much of the world had little choice but to follow.
Today, the situation is very different. The younger generation, deeply affected by Israel’s actions in Gaza, has witnessed what Zionism and Western dominance can produce: civilians, babies, children, women and places of worship deliberately destroyed. This has also amplified global outrage. Public opinion increasingly evaluates this war through the psychological and moral impact of the Gaza genocide.
In other words, the growing anti-Israel and anti-U.S. sentiment around the world – rooted in perceptions of injustice and illegality – shapes how people interpret the war.
After asking whose war this is, another striking remark came from Pakistan’s defense minister. The U.S. defined the primary strategic objective of the war as maintaining the freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz. But if there had been no war, the Strait of Hormuz would already have been open. To first create a war environment and then place the Strait of Hormuz at the center as the justification for ending it hardly seems logical.
History also teaches that when empires grow very powerful, they often become overly confident and underestimate their rivals. As Sun Tzu once said: “He who knows himself will never lose a battle; he who knows the enemy will always win.” From that perspective, it appears that Trump has miscalculated.
Today, it remains unclear where this war will lead. But what it clearly demonstrates is that this is an unjust and unlawful conflict, driven by Israel’s aggressive and expansionist ambitions that seek to encircle the entire region.
The war has made life more difficult for 8 billion people. It has plunged Middle Eastern countries into instability. The Gulf balance built over the past 30 or 40 years has nearly collapsed into misery. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have all suffered serious damage from the conflict. Kuwait and Iraq have also been affected.
Meanwhile, Trump issues a new statement about peace almost every day. Wars are often won and lost with the support of allies. China and Russia are quietly providing strong support to Iran behind the scenes. And if Iran emerges from this conflict successfully, it may well reset the legacy of the Iranian Revolution itself.
Trump’s confusion has now become the world’s confusion. Following his statements, listening to them, or attempting to analyze them has become nearly impossible.
In the old empires, words carried weight. The word of the state, the law of the state and the word of the head of state were trusted. But today the world’s most powerful empire finds itself in a position where its word is no longer trusted, and where no one is quite sure what it truly means when it speaks.
Of course, every leader thinks first of his own people and their future. Yet from every angle it increasingly appears that this is not America’s war at all – it is, quite simply, Israel’s war.
